Making memories and keeping the faith

Toys

by Imaan on Dec 12

The girls have been putting their share into reorganizing our extension. It was meant to be our homeschool headquarters and to house our Lightbulb Lab, but after many leaks and much damage, the idea had to be abandoned. It became a catch-all unfortunately and is presently a horribly messy store-room. We’ve finally made some progress where the repairs are concerned though and while the job isn’t complete yet, we are feeling quite hopeful :) I think the girls could use some breathing and creating space!

They love crafting and making their own toys. This pastime has, on occasion, given me a few headaches – there are only so many pebbles, branches and leaves I can tolerate in the house! (Hence the need for the extension to be properly done up pronto…) I must admit though that I like this about children – their ingenuity.

They found an old box that was falling apart and some little wooden toys and were good to go! They worked on felt pillows and blankets and spent ages arranging their rooms. They found some old figurines and made clothes for them too.

I’ve always wanted to give my kids natural toys and fell in love with many, but most were only available online and were way out of my budget. There are the well-crafted Ostheimer toys for instance. I once wanted to get a set for Mars when she was much younger. It was a set of Inuit dolls – a whole family complete with sled and dogs. Each figurine alone cost between US$26 to US$42 though, so that was the end of my Ostheimer obsession! We settled instead for what we could find locally. In Singapore, we found an unfinished wooden doll house and furniture – it was such a gem as it was reasonably priced and on sale to boot. We also bought lots of wooden toys from Daiso that cost us S$2 each. They don’t compare to Ostheimer or many other Waldorf toys that are beautifully made, but I think they were good finds given our finances and achieved pretty much the same goal – creative and meaningful play.

If there is a dearth of quality toys in Singapore, it is even worse in Pakistan. Most stores here seem to stock only poorly made plastic ones that are flimsy and gaudy or battery-operated toys that I believe serve only to promote noise pollution and to inhibit creativity.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that kids don’t need many toys or manipulatives for play or learning. We’ve had to leave many things back in Singapore but alhamdulillah it has been good for us. We’ve learnt that with imagination and creativity, we can do just fine with what is available. Alhamdulillah, most children don’t need much prompting in this respect – they know how to make do and have a jolly good time while they are at it.

Kyrie Mead of Are So Happy has written a delightful article about Untoys. Unlike finished toys, these are normal every objects that you can find around the house or the outdoors. The beauty of these materials is that they are open-ended – there is no right way to go about playing with them; it is entirely up to the child’s imagination. My kids have a collection of grey pebbles – they use them as decoration pieces, dolls’ stools and even painted some to resemble swaddled baby dolls. (I think they were inspired by the very adorable story, Elizabeti’s Doll by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen!) They also love cardboard boxes which become their tents, cars or whatever they please.

Mars and Bear do have some plastic toys, but their passion is really wooden ones. There is something about the feel of wood – the weight, the texture and beauty – that makes playing with them so joyful. They miss some of their wooden toys left back home in Singapore, so we did what they love – made some new ones! We had some unfinished plain wooden doll bases and painted these last week…

Pic #1: The “Gal Pals” – the pink one with the large flower is going to Arizona in shaa Allah :)
Pic #2: Bear calls these two “The Twins” – the yellow one is her favourite.

The ‘hijabis’ – we prefer to keep the dolls as featureless as possible… no arms and some have no eyes.

These are smaller than the dolls in the previous pictures. We have an assortment here – a grandma, a boy and even a little baby (he’s all bundled up in a white blanket and is supposed to be asleep).

The job can be a little painstaking – they have to be very meticulous to avoid smudges – painting over mistakes is not a solution as the mistakes can show up weeks or months later after varnishing. (We have to sand any bad paintwork down.) They also have to wait patiently for each layer of paint to dry to make sure that the work is even and neat. (Of course, having a fussy mum who overthinks doesn’t help!) Still, it was very satisfying and a good creative release! As Bear likes to say, “It’s always better to make your own things. It’s so much more fun!”

Well, we are still fighting a battle with clutter and dust so I’m off for a bit… I hope you have many colourful days ahead!

I love these! I was just expressing my love for wooden toys to my husband the other day. You asked me about cotton and generally I just get whatever I can from local shops. Cotton seems to be readily available here. Anything else? Then I hit Ebay and a couple of other yarny places online!

Assalaamu Alaikum!
Masha Allaah wonderful! Maimoonah is just next to me and she watched the you tube and all your lovely wooden dolls and going crazy over them. She wants to go to china and bring all the wooden stuff and make her own Insha Allaah! She has been studying all about Asia and some countries these few days and I think reading about China has made her come out with it. I was like why would you want to go to China ????? lol

Well done all of you. And please do share if you do the doll house and much more Insha Allaah!

Aww bless! Ma shaa Allah she is so precious :) She is learning so much and so well! Our JH doll house can’t be nailed together unfortunately – the wood is way too thin LOL! But we just lean the pieces against a wall and that’s that :P In shaa Allah I will try to take some pics.

YES! DAISO is a Japanese shop and we love it to pieces! There isn’t one in Pakistan… which is a good thing because the girls and I would go mad I think :) In Singapore, everything sells for $2 so it is our fave haunt :) Not everythng is cheap of course – I mean, stickers for $2? But I’ve bought very good crafting scissors, book ends, felt (just OK quality but good enough for our simple projects), origami books and paper and bento boxes.

Hey that Daiso what you have mentioned is a Japanese shop right? We have one here and that was the cheap shop I was telling you about the other day. I did not see wooden toys there though! Insha Allaah next time will spend more time there and look for stuff! Thanks for sharing!

Ma sha Allah such beautiful ideas! I love the idea of limiting toys to boost children’s creative powers. In this this day and age, that is so needed! I love the doll house idea! I’m gonna suggest the idea to the girls. This would be a great project to work on and half fun with!

And I love what you’ve done with the wooden dolls! I can just see the girls begging me to buy some too. This would be another great project to work on!

Those dolls are just fab, maashaa Allah. I love it! We do some woodworking over here. Yahya has about 6 weeks or so of woodworking instruction at school per year. He made a lockbox last year. Did you see it?

For now, they are just learning how to stack, saw, and split the wood. I really like the idea of starting with a raw piece of wood and using that to create with. We are far from that though.

How LOVELY that Yahya has woodworking classes! I’ve just searched your site and seen the lockbox – it is ma shaa Allah so well made! I would love for my girls to take up carpentry lessons – they have so many ideas but not the know-how. In shaa Allah soon :) You’ve inspired me!

How cute are those hijaabi’s :) I too love wooden toys they are so satisfying in this day and age when everything is moving towards more life like…yuck! That is one of the reasons we don’t have any dolls! It gives me the heeebeejeeebees some times! My problem is that here the wooden toys are in fashion here so it is expensive. I Iove your idea to paint your own :) masha Allah it turned out great!

How are you and when are you coming to Islamabad? We got the wooden dolls online and a friend brought them over from the US. We have a few extras so we can send some to you in shaa Allah if you like! Let me know! We used acrylic paint – not the kind that come in tubes as they are a little dry. (We tried them and they were awful!) You need to get the sort that come in little bottles and little plastic tubs (I think the brand is Apple Barrel or something?) as these are nice and smooth. We also used paint markers for the designs – I think these are oil based – you know the kind that you have to shake before the paint starts to emerge?

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About Me

I'm a Muslim Singaporean based in Islamabad, Pakistan. I homeschool my 3 rowdy ruffians, Mars, Bear and Peep. We are true blue bibliomaniacs and run a small library for local homeschoolers. I adore crafting, all things vintage, and of course, tea.